ABUJA – The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has developed a programme for enrollees in need of intensive tertiary disease healthcare, Mr Ayo Osinlu said.
Osinlu, Head, Media and Public Relations of the scheme, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday.
He said that the programme would enable enrollees the opportunity to apply for the treatment of ailments they wanted.
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Osinlu explained that the expenses of the treatment would not be possibly covered by the scheme.
“We are looking at establishing a programme which we call NHIS PLUS, but it is still being developed.
“It is a programme whereby patients with capital intensive tertiary disease can enroll and ask to be treated of their disease, even though it is not originally on our health care list.
“Like someone can come and say that I am an oncology patient or cancer patient and request to be treated as long as the individual is an enrollee to the scheme.
“The scheme can make recommendations of the expertise in the country but the expenses won’t be possibly covered by NHIS because the expenses will be cumbersome,” Osinlu said.
He explained that the NHIS PLUS was still undergoing a developmental process, studies and research which would determine the inclusion of the package into the scheme’s health programmes.
The spokesman said the scheme was following up on developed countries who took up this initiative to ascertain how progressive they were.
“This programme is still at the developmental process and it will empower enrollees the opportunity to subscribe on their own and apply for the package they want.
“We are studying the success stories of countries like the UK that took up this kind of initiative,” he said.
Osinlu recalled that the scheme had offered treatments to some capital intensive tertiary disease conditions in the past year.
He stated that the practice was not consistent, but it was a way of appreciating some enrollees who had kept faith with the scheme during their beginning.
He said it was also a way the scheme participated in the country’s centenary celebration.
“We had six open heart surgeries, one renal transplant, two orthopaedic surgeries and four oncology treatments, all carried out in Nigeria.
“It was a way of offering our enrollees access to services that were ordinarily on our exclusion list such as capital intensive super tertiary disease conditions,’’ he said.
According to him, NHIS did this as part of registering prominent presence in the nation’s centenary celebration last year.
“It was to reward enrollees who had believed in the scheme during the time of its infancy.
“It is also to discourage outward medical tourism, showcase the capacity of Nigerian medical centres and personnel to deal effectively with these complex conditions,” Osinlu said.
He said the handling of capital intensive tertiary disease conditions was a possibility but it required a gradual start.
He explained that the scheme could not begin with heavy health issues, adding that it would be difficult for the scheme to manage.
He said it was needful the scheme to began gradually and not ambitiously without a significant result.
Osinlu reassured that NHIS was working in line with President Goodluck Jonathan’s agenda to attain 40 per cent healthy status and universal health coverage by 2020. (NAN)
